In the closing months of World War II, a young American lieutenant named Charles von Stade was killed in Germany when his jeep ran over a land mine. Six weeks later, at a hospital back home in New Jersey, his young widow, Sara, gave birth to a daughter, Frederica, who would grow up to become one of the most acclaimed singers of her generation.

Frederica von Stade never knew her father, but the love letters he sent his young bride from the front survived. Von Stade recalls that a chance comment led to the idea of these letters somehow becoming a song-cycle, and, with the help of poet Kim Vaeth and composer Richard Danielpour, that is exactly what happened.

On today’s date in 1998, mezzo-soprano Frederica Von Stade and baritone Thomas Hampson gave the premiere performance of “Elegies” in Jacksonville, Florida, and soon after recorded the work in London.

Vaeth’s poems and Danielpour’s music move through a dreamscape of light and darkness, in which the voice of a grown-up daughter and a long-lost father reach out toward each other through time and space.

Among the many tributes and recollections to what has come to be called “The Greatest Generation,” this song-cycle has proven to be a particularly moving one.